Explanation:
Star clusters, glowing nebulae
and dark dust clouds
abound
in Cepheus, royal constellation of
the northern hemisphere.
You can follow them in amazing detail across this broad
skyscape,
a mosaic of telescopic images spanning about 17 degrees.
Beginning at the lower left, the large emission nebula
is cataloged as IC 1396.
Hundreds of light-years across and about 3,000 light-years distant,
it contains a dark, winding, tendril-shaped feature popularly known
as the Elephant's Trunk.
Near the top middle, the bright nebula with an embedded star cluster
is NGC 7380.
At the upper right lies NGC 7635
(the Bubble Nebula) and
star cluster M52.
Put your cursor over the picture to see a labeled version
of the field.
Many of the objects highlighted have a designation from the
second version of the
Sharpless
catalog (Sh2) and the
Barnard catalog (B) of dark nebulae.
Associated with star formation, the sites are telltale markers along
the region's complex of giant
molecular clouds.